Search This Blog

TCS gets right for CAT

Delhi, (India): Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) has emerged winner for conducting the Common Admission Test (CAT). With this, TCS will be the CAT-conducting partner of Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs) for the next five years, from 2014 to 2018.

CAT is a highly competitive examination for selecting students into various Management programmes of Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs), Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), National Institute of Technology (NIT), Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) and few other institutions.

From 2009 to 2013, US-based Prometric was in charge of computer-based CAT examination with IIMs. This time TCS grabbed the contract by beating four institutions who participated in the bid. Those institutes were Prometric, Aptech, Equity career Technologies, Merit Trac Services. TCS was chosen as the authority for conducting CAT exam for the next five years- from 2014 to 2018.

From $40 million to $5 million

The CAT exam deal was awarded for TCS for a mere ($5 million) and it is around Rs.29 crore for a period of 5 years. But CAT deal was given for Prometric for a whopping $40 million for conducting exam from 2009-2013.

A committee comprising of one member each from seven old IIMs (including a few directors) finalised on TCS after a series of meetings. Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) is an Indian information technology (IT) service, business solutions and consulting company headquartered in Mumbai. It has been actively soliciting more projects in the education sector. TCS leverages its 15+ years of experience in the e-Learning space and ready availability of domain experts to provide customized e-Learning and education solutions to help customer enhance their workforce performance and increase their customer satisfaction.

Computer-based CATThe IIMs had made CAT a computer-based examination from 2009 onwards. Prometric and NIIT were assigned the task of conducting CAT in that year. But unfortunately, in 2009, thousands were unable to take the CAT test due to technical glitches. A virus attack was pointed out as the reason for this technical error.

The human resource development(HR) ministry had demanded a report on the incident, given by the convenor of CAT 2009, Satish Deodhar. The tests were reset for those who could not take it. During 2010, Prometric dropped NIIT as the delivery partner and instead chose two other service providers.

Test Duration and PatternThe CAT 2013 will have only two sections. The first section is Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation; the second section is Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning. These two sections will be implemented sequentially with separate time limits. The examination will be 140 minutes.

Three scaled scores will be presented for each candidate: an overall scaled score and two separate scaled scores for each section. As the two sections evaluate distinct sets of knowledge and skills, scores do not correlate across... sections. A high score in one section does not guarantee a high score in another section. Percentile rankings are provided for each individual section as well as for the overall exam score.

Last Year CAT controversy

In 2013, around 1.73 lakh students have appeared for the CAT exam. But this again ended in controversy. Around 95,000 candidates have got either zero or negative marks in the exam. Those who attempted a single question correctly got more than 55 percentile. So they approached court to get a redress.

TCS challenge

The major challenge in front of TCS will be to make CAT 2014 as glitch-free and tamper-proof exam. Many complaints have been popped up during the last five years, though CAT was going on without a stop. CAT 2014 is going to be conducted by TCS and IIM-Indore. Prof. Rohit Kapoor will be the conductor of the exam. The controversial CAT 2013 with score discrepancies was conducted under Prof. Rohit Kapoor’s supervision. It will be a great opportunity for TCS to prove an Indian IT brand is technically sound enough to execute a fool-proof CAT exam.

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Google+

Email

Other Apps

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Google+

Email

Other Apps

Popular posts from this blog

Sharjah, (UAE): American University of Sharjah (AUS) held a high-impact seminar entitled Steps for an Arab Astronomy Renaissance at its campus on May 14, 2014. The event, which was held in partnership with Nature Publishing Group (NPG) and the Dubai Astronomy Group (DAG), drew a large audience comprising students, faculty members, university officials as well as members of the public.

The seminar, which was hosted by Mohammed Yahia—editor ofNature Middle East and a prominent science journalist who also represented Nature Arabic Edition, a scientific publication in Arabic by Nature Publishing Group—was a follow up on the article on the state of Arab astronomy published earlier in Nature by Dr. Nidhal Guessoum, Professor of Physics and Associate Dean, College of Arts and Science. The event featured a number of exciting presentations, including an engaging review of the state of Arab astronomy by Dr. Guessoum.

Commenting on the importance of seminars such as these throughout the region, Ya…

Muscat, (Oman): Cisco Systems has announced it is to select graduates from colleges and universities in Oman for a two-year training abroad, Muscat Daily , an English Daily from Oman, has reported.

This is part of Cisco mission of helping Oman to utilise its potential in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector through its training programmes. “We will receive applications till the end of this month and the shortlisted candidates will be interviewed in May. Those selected will begin their training in Amsterdam in July,” said Iyad al Chammat, general manager of Cisco Systems in Yemen, Oman and Afghanistan. The company is also offering a six-month internship programme in Oman for third and fourth year students, he said.

“In Oman, we are paying back to the community through our academies. We have 20 academies in the sultanate, including those at the Sultan Qaboos University, Higher College of Technology, and CAS,” Chammat said.

If asked to compare IIT Bombay to IIT Delhi, most students say that the difference is negligible. Both are in metropolitan cities with good options for hostels, PG accommodations, food and entertainment. Cultural activities are equally good as is the faculty and study methodology. Even placements at the two IITS are amongst the best in the country. Yet figures indicate that the top JEE rank holders prefer Computer Science Engineering at IIT Mumbai rather than IIT Delhi. But, we are here to tell you when and why you can avoid IIT Mumbai.

Mumbai IIT was earlier placed in the suburbs, away from the crowds, giving IITians the space and peace to pursue their career goals. Today the area in Powai is surrounded by high rise building, malls and traffic snarls, bringing with it all the clatter and patter of a metropolitan hub. Just like the population and popularity of Powai and its neighbouring areas has grown, so has the quality of education at thi…